Aluminum cases junk?

I never shot them in revolver rounds. Shot many in auto rounds. They worked fine.

I haven't shot revolver rounds ether but I know the aluminum cases expand easily. The 9mm cases can be reloaded but you won't get maybe two soft loading from them before the cases won't hold a primer anymore. It's the only one I have tried.
I can imagine the long revolver round would lock up in the chamber.

I know an old timer who loads aluminum cases. He said 2 loading's max. Never go over that. I never bothered to load them.

I don’t think I would call them junk, scrap would be a good description after the first firing but not junk.

I shot with a guy that thought he had discovered something great, reloading aluminum cases. They were everywhere and free, sure they spit upon the 2nd firing but they cost nothing and he had figured out how to reload them.

Fast forward about 6 months and he noticed the chamber of the Kart barrel had eroded from all of the cases splitting and the resulting flame cutting.

It was at that point he realized that “Not Reloadable” did not mean it was impossible to do so, rather should not be done.

Have you been shooting .38 Specials in the gun? Is there a carbon/lead ring in there in front of the .38 case mouth? They'll hang on that for sure.

Appalachiannative said:

I've probably fired hundreds and hundreds of brass cases rounds in my Taurus 66 .357 magnum. Every time I do, I can swing the cylinder out and point the weapon up to make the brass cases fall out. A few years ago I bought some aluminum cased CCI ammo because it was cheap and found that for the first time the ejector became necessary to use. In fact some cases got kinda hung up and had to be pulled out with my fingers. I assume the aluminum cases swelled because of the heat from the round going off. Is this an inherent problem with aluminum cases or just the ones I bought? Might seem like a silly question to some but I'm asking anyway

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I have fired some aluminum cased ammo from 9mm pistols and never had an issue, but I did get a box of .38 Special aluminum cased CCI Blazer ammo as a gift, or I should say a giveaway at a gun store once. The cases did stick in my 2 J frame S&W revolvers at the time. I shot about 20 rounds of the box and gave the rest away to some guy at the range. I did tell him about the sticking issue.
The ammo shot fine. Ejection was a problem. I didn’t take time to let the cases cool to see if that helped.

I've shot some blazer aluminum cased 357 and 38 and it's never been problematic for me. I didn't notice it sticking in the chambers unduly but I never had a gun that would drop empties if pointed muzzle up. I always use the extractor star. Muzzle up and whack the ejector rod.

I have heard you can reload them in a pinch but never tried it. I have made dummy ammo from it though.

They are good for decorating a Christmas tree once you clean them up and run them on a string.

Appalachiannative said:

That brings up another point. My old man has fired many a aluminum case .45 acp in his 1911 and never had a problem. One would think the automatics would have more trouble than the revolver but it seems the opposite in my experience

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Depends on the pistol. Same goes for steel case ammo. A lot of these small subcompact automatics really hate aluminum cases. I think slide mass and cycle time might be the factor... just a feeling. Seems like the mid to full size pistols handle it better. I dont remember ever having any issues with aluminum cases out of duty size pistols.

Appalachiannative said:

That brings up another point. My old man has fired many a aluminum case .45 acp in his 1911 and never had a problem. One would think the automatics would have more trouble than the revolver but it seems the opposite in my experience

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Three fifty seven operates at twice the pressure that the .45 ACP does. Works the aluminum much more.

The first rounds I put through my 44 magnum were aluminum case and they were freaking hot and they ejected fine.. I still have half that box in fact.

Brass has some qualities that make it pretty much ideal for cartridge cases. Steel being stronger than brass doesn't stretch as well, or it takes more pressure to make it do so. That's I think where steel ammo gets at least some of its reputation for being dirty...gas and soot escaping around the case and into the chamber and action. Now, being that it doesn't stretch much upon firing, and that it springs back once pressure dies down, makes extraction pretty easy. The other gripe about steel is that its harder than brass, softer than the hardened carbon steel of the barrel, bolt and extractor, but harder than brass and can potentially induce more wear than brass.
Now aluminum, being softer than brass has no issues with wear, or stretching enough to seal the breech of the firearm. However, aluminum doesn't spring back as well as brass, which can make extraction a problem, especially in a longer straight walled case like 38 or 357.
This is a pretty simplified explanation, I'm sure someone with materials science training can explain it in terms of Young's modulus of elasticity, or yield strength or whatnot. But my personal experience with a wide range of aluminum alloys is aluminum will usually bend once...and in one direction...and I think thats the issue with aluminum cases. Upon firing, they have undergo a plastic deformation, meaning they're not ever springing back to their original shape. Trying to resize them only work hardens the material leading to some sort of failure if exposed to the stress of firing again

Appalachiannative said:

. . . aluminum cased CCI ammo because it was cheap and found that for the first time the ejector became necessary to use. . . .

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Pressure, not heat, and it's a well known difference in aluminum vs brass. It's only a problem if you decide it's a problem.

The aluminum case is less elastic, and doesn't spring back (smaller) quite as much as brass does.

AK Hunter said:

I haven't shot revolver rounds ether but I know the aluminum cases expand easily. The 9mm cases can be reloaded but you won't get maybe two soft loading from them before the cases won't hold a primer anymore. It's the only one I have tried.
I can imagine the long revolver round would lock up in the chamber.

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CoalCrackerAl said:

I know an old timer who loads aluminum cases. He said 2 loading's max. Never go over that. I never bothered to load them.

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They will reload more than just a couple of times, but you'll lose some each time to split necks. I loaded 50 9mm aluminum cases I picked up at the range and quit at around 6 or 8 reloads. At that point, I was down to about 30 rounds due to the case necks splitting and had proved the point and didnt bother going on. Primer pockets were fine all along. I loaded the aluminum cases with the same load I load my brass cases with, and its just under max.

Ive never shot revolver calibers in aluminum cases. Dont know what you're shooting brass wise that they just fall out, but most of my revolvers require you to punch the ejector rod to empty the gun, and the 357's and snubbies will often hang cases if you dont punch it smartly. I would say its probably more uncommon that they do just drop out than dont.

Appalachiannative said:

I assume the aluminum cases swelled because of the heat from the round going off. Is this an inherent problem with aluminum cases or just the ones I bought? Might seem like a silly question to some but I'm asking anyway

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It's the pressure that expands them, same with brass cases. It's necessary to seal the gases and keep them going the right direction down the barrel. Otherwise you could end up with flame cutting/erosion in your chamber. Powder puff loads will sometimes show carbon soot on the cases and this is because there is not enough pressure to seal the cases to the chamber wall. FME.....most aluminum cased .357 ammo is quite anemic, probably due to sticky extraction.

A couple decades ago I discovered this camp 9 didn’t like didn’t like aluminum cased ammunition.

Unfortunately it wasn’t until after it split the factory stock and cracked the trigger group housing.



I have also seen breechface erosion and even one firing pin stop flame cut by many thousands of them. Back then they cost $2.99/50 rounds, so I was slow to learn to avoid them.

Back in ancient times (late 80s) the AL Blazer stuff had an attractive price, but, I found that it was hideously inaccurate in either autos or revolvers. As in not holding a zero within a given 10 or 15 rounds, let alone an entire box.
Sometimes the the cases would stick, sometimes they wouldn't. I never found a rhyme nor reason to them. And, just sucked it up and found other ammo to shoot.

Mind, that was in the Beforetimes, when we selected ammo by price, not availability.

Perhaps the ammo is different now--I know they offer as much brass as aluminum. All I know is that I see "Blazer" and have a reflexive flinch.

CapnMac said:

Back in ancient times (late 80s) the AL Blazer stuff had an attractive price, but, I found that it was hideously inaccurate in either autos or revolvers. As in not holding a zero within a given 10 or 15 rounds, let alone an entire box.
Sometimes the the cases would stick, sometimes they wouldn't. I never found a rhyme nor reason to them. And, just sucked it up and found other ammo to shoot.

Mind, that was in the Beforetimes, when we selected ammo by price, not availability.

Perhaps the ammo is different now--I know they offer as much brass as aluminum. All I know is that I see "Blazer" and have a reflexive flinch.

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Has any LEO or Military in the world ever stuck with Aluminum cases? I cant think of one. Steel yes .... I cant recall anyone using aluminum though. Just thinking

jmorris said:

A couple decades ago I discovered this camp 9 didn’t like didn’t like aluminum cased ammunition.

Unfortunately it wasn’t until after it split the factory stock and cracked the trigger group housing.



I have also seen breechface erosion and even one firing pin stop flame cut by many thousands of them. Back then they cost $2.99/50 rounds, so I was slow to learn to avoid them.

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I ran rediculous amount of them through Ruger P series pistols without any problems but those seem to handle everything well.

Sorry about your camp 9. I like those rifles.

starling said:

Military in the world ever stuck with Aluminum cases?

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Some of that will be down to how aluminum, until middling recently, was something of a rarity. And was more needed for aviation use and the like. So, steel is far more preferable a "strategic" material.

Now, LE use is vastly over estimated. They may buy by the case, but more LEA seldom expend more than a box or two, per officer, perhaps twice a year. So, there's no need to economize. Which allows them to "afford" nickel cases (which, in days of old, were more "leather friendly" too). But, really, a 100 officer department can afford an extra penny per round.

I knew LEO who were buying Blazer at the same stores and shooting it at the same ranges as I was. Some had better results, some had worse. Most were far more comfortable with the "Lawman" brass cased ammo. (Horse traded for enough 200gr "flying ashtrays" back in the day [])

I bought some aluminum cased 9mm and 38 special several years ago. Both would stick at times. The 9mm was horrible in my Walther, but worked fine in my S&W. The 38 stuck in the only gun I had for it.

starling said:

They are good for decorating a Christmas tree once you clean them up and run them on a string.

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You should take a picture of your christmas tree